It's Your 60th... Make a Scene!

The card I have today was a commission... well, one of the ladies I meet up with at the park when I walk the dog asked if I could make a card for her friend Vicki's 60th birthday, so "commission" sounds a bit posh :-)  There were quite a few "elements" of Vicki's life my friend wanted to be incorporated, a scene seemed the most appropriate form... picture heavy LOOOOONG post, sorry;-)

The birthday girl is "not a twig" :-) has bought a campervan to use in her retirement with her hubby, their name is "Read" their kids names are Belinda and Mark - she loves a cocktail (or three, lol) and is a FANATICAL supporter of  "our" Footy team The West Coast Eagles...  whose colours are Blue and Gold. The card was for her friends to sign so it had to have plenty of room for signatures - PHEW, that's a lot of details to squash into one li'l ol' card, lol. It's an easel card, I just love easel cards :-)

There are several images used here; the caravan is the same one I used for my son's birthday card in 2016, which is when this card was made, it's from (the sadly now defunct) The Stamp Fairy and called "Lenny Camping".

I erased Lenny from the front of the van and drew in a drawbar and jockey wheel, as well as adding the spending-kids-inheritance logo on the side of the van and giving the door the appropriate number, one of the reasons I love digis, so easy to mask off and add personalisation :-) I fussy cut the caravan and popped it up on foam dots.
Another little "feature" is the West Coast Eagles flag flying proudly on the back of the caravan.  I downloaded a pic from the WCE Homepage, shrank it down to as small as I could still having it recognisable, wrapped it around a toothpick and glued it in behind the van - of course, it looks so much better IRL

"Vicki", seen here in her cocktail glass is, in fact, Martini Bianca from Dr Digi's House of Stamps... I DID slim her down a little - and fussy cut her & popped her up on foam dots too.  I've added her hubby to the window of the van, he is also from Dr Digi's (Weekend Walter), I've used him for one of my Hubby's cards - bonus here is... he actually looks like Vicki's husband!

I coloured the images with Copics, adding Glossy Accents to the glass and the window of the van.  The grassy hills were cut with Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillsides using some green spotty paper from my stash, I added some shadows to accentuate the layers.  
The "hill" with the pine trees is Poppy Dies Freemont Pine Landscape, the Grassy Border, signpost with "Work" and "Life" on and Picket Fence are all My Favorite Things dies,  the clouds (popped up on foam dots) are Memory Box and the flowers are punches - with gems as centres on the larger and Stickles as centres on the smaller  

I love the arched border... it's MFT as well, "Fanfare Scalloped Border".  I added it in yellow on the blue card (which has a lovely texture called Pebble, and a pearl finish that shifts blue to black that I can't do justice to in photos) that I added the computer generated sentiment panel to... and in blue - though plain blue as the Pebble paper looks nice, but cuts like a dog! - on the jotting panel

As the jotting panel was going to get a lot of signatures it had to be BIG, so I added an "extra" fold and tada... there we have an A4 panel for all to sign - hopefully the pics show what I (obviously!) am having difficulty describing :-)
I added some gems to the Fanfare border on the sentiment panel but left them plain inside so the card stayed pretty flat.
And that, finally, is that!!  I actually REALLY enjoyed creating this card, and the recipient LOVED it, so that was very satisfying too :-)  
I'd like to share it in the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown Add Some Texture, The Paper Shelter Use a Sentiment, Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper, Pixies Snippets Playground Use snippets (the green paper), Die Cut Divas Use Yellow, Little Miss Muffet, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, 4 Crafty Chicks, Crafting With Friends Challenge 73, Creative Fingers,Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles A Perfect Time to Craft, Create and Inspire, Creatalicious Challenges, Crafting With Attitude and Corrosive Challenge Anything Goes

Well, that's it for today... this card was one I found on an a camera card.. I'm still trying to resurrect my laptop from the Great OneDrive Fiasco.  I am "getting there", I've found 47 cards from my Drafts- I know I had 52 or 53, so I haven't lost TOO many.  Can't say the same for all my photos sadly, but I am still looking, loading, sorting and labelling so it's not over yet
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

... and now for September's Patterned Paper Challenge

Time's still flyin' over here... what about where you are??  Thought so, lol
It's time for a new challenge at Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge... the theme's the same as always; Use Patterned Paper - yup, THAT easy!!
I made a card for my hubby's birthday (which was earlier in the year)  He has a great sense of humour, if you are REALLY easily offended look away now, lol.  Anyway, here 'tis

It's actually an easel card - just about my favourite fold, don't know if it's hubby's favourite or not, lol.  The image is from Dr Digis, he's "Ambrose Dunderton" and you can get your copy here.  I coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils - don't I always?!

I made the sentiment up on the computer, it relates to my hubby saying - ALL the time - when I ask if he'd like a wine, a beer or a cup of tea "ooh, a cup of tea, I know... I'm a boring old fart" to which I reply "ah yeah, but you're MY old fart" at this point we snicker like the teenagers we were when first we met and I get the cup of tea, rofl.   
The paper I've used is from Kaisercraft's Velvet Ensemble collection; there's lovely gold detail that isn't showing in the pics, but it really it is quite lush in real life. The brown and kraft card used for matting is from my stash, as is the hessian, which has been in my stash for ages, I've finally got around to using some!  The gold pearls are from stash too... but I use those a lot so I'm not quite so glad to have cracked them out, lol.

Colouring is my favourite part of card making, I really love it... I find it relaxing and am always a bit disappointed that I didn't quite get the result I was anticipating... I have to say I am VERY happy with this one; it has a real "depth" to it in real life, doesn't show quite as well in the photos, but like I said I'm happy with it as it's more a reflection on my photography than my colouring skills :-))  I added some more of the gold pearls for his buttons and some gloss to his glasses.
That's it!  Oh, I added a basic jotting panel - now THAT's it!
Pop over to the Challenge Blog and check out the rest of the team's work, inspiring :-) Hope you get a chance to enter the challenge this time around too, remember all you have to do is use patterned paper... no doubt about it that's EASY!!  Great prize on offer too, as always.  
I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges; 
As You Like It Favourite Layout and Why (Basic or CAS, shows off the image) 

Little Miss Muffet One For the Boys  
Sparkles Monthly Challenge More than One Fold

Seize the Birthday Birthday

Bizzy Becs Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes

Simon Says Challenge Anything Goes

Outlawz Friday Colouring Challenge Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion Anything Goes
Cuttlebug Mania  Anything Goes
Clear It Out  Theme: Anything Goes, Stash: Anything Goes
That's it for today.  I'm going to New Zealand for a couple of weeks on Saturday... I have a DT card scheduled for then (I'll actually be in Melbourne for the weekend, then flying into Queenstown on Monday) hopefully it will post and I'll get some WiFi time in before we leave Australia.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Ho Ho Ho..ere Come The Boys

Well it's that time of the year... the new challenge starting today at Here Come The Boys will take us through the Festive Season, and has everybody's favourite theme Anything Goes.  I made  a Countdown To Christmas calendar, I'm not totally happy with the result but I did enjoy challenging myself - and I now have a set of templates and a better idea of the difficulties involved, lol

I made the "stand" simply by scoring a rectangle of silver board near the bottom, bending that forward to make a ledge for the "days until Christmas" block and along the sides, bending them back to make wings to balance the stand.  I punched the top edge with a punch my Mum and Dad brought back from Malaysia.
The number cubes and the block they stand on are simple boxes made from the silver card, I'll have templates made up on my freebies page soon.  The patterns for the numbers and text are a freebie from See Vanessa Craft. brilliant, thanks :-) I added Stickles to jazz it all up - but I'd rethink that, as it went EVERYWHERE, though that's probably due to my impatience - not a problem if you actually let the stuff dry, lol.  The rest of the paper is from my stash.  

Our sponsor for this challenge is the fabulous Dr Digi, I've used Naughty or Nice - it's my favourite Dr Digi Christmas image... but there are a few close seconds :-)  I coloured the image with Copics, adding some shadows and highlights with Prismacolor pencils - and the obligatory gloss to Santas's eyes and some glitter to the buttons.  Allsorts Challenges wants us to be Inspired by a Christmas Song, "...Santa Claus in Coming To Town", Divas by Design want us to Use Some Red, I'm in and Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge have One for the Boys so I'm in there too. Crafty Calendar has Christmas, Totally Papercrafts has Ho Ho Holidays, Corrosive Challenge has Happy Holidays and Stampin' for the Weekend has Feeling Festive so I'm entering those, while Bearly Mine Challenges, 2 Sisters Challenge, Cute Card Thursday,Colour Me Copic, Simon Says Challenge and Through the Craftroom Door all have Anything Goes challenges so entering those too!

Nathan, cheeky little chap

Well that's it for today's project, I'll be back in a few days with a card... or maybe another non-card - depending on how brave I'm feeling, lol.  Hope you get a chance to enter the challenge... it's running for five weeks, so that helps!  Pop over to the blog and check out the rest of the team's inspiration, well worth a visit. 
Now, as promised in my post yesterday, here's some more pics of my gorgeous twinnies; they're eight months old now and crawling - you need to have eyes in the back of your head to watch them both!  They're very aware of each other now too, and know when the other one's getting something or has a toy THEY'D like; Nathan's particular thing is food - he LOVES his solids and taking a few seconds out to shovel some into Emily's mouth is just not on, lol.
They are like chalk and cheese - Nathan is the image of his Dad at that age and Emily the image of her Mum, Nathan is "on" all the time, and Emily is a pretty chilled chick :-)  They've reached their milestones in different order too, Emily could sit really well for weeks before Nathan, he doesn't want to be still and crawled (albeit commando style) for ages before he started sitting.  

Emily, such a sweetie

They've come a long way from the little premmies they started out as, and we are grateful, Emily is still bigger than Nathan, but the percentage is not as high so we hope he'll catch up.
Anyway, until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna.

Sketch Time at Here Come The Boys

Time for a new challenge at Here Come The Boys... and it's a Sketch, I love a good Sketch - here's my card

I've used Weekend Walter from Dr Digi (who is our sponsor this time around), I had the image and sentiment ("Just want to say thanks... for being such a great role model for our Sons") printed and ready to make a Father's Day card for my hubby... then ran out of time (sound familiar, lol) Totally Papercrafts have Add Humour (hubby has a great sense of humour, and loved this!) so i'm entering there and Gem of a Challenge has for the Boys so I'm entering there too.
Here's the sketch I followed (well this being a Sketch challenge, I would wouldn't I, lol) I coloured the image with Copics.  The papers are from Kaisercraft's Le Chateau collection (which I think is discontinued) and the black matting is from my stash... as is the jute mesh and the Metallique Bronze Card Candi
My husband, just like Walter, LOVES tea... so the little charm is very fitting :-) Craft Your Passion wants us to Add a Little Charm, so I'm entering there.
I followed the sketch for the inside of the card too, nothing new in that, lol, but used Kaiser cardstock as the background as I didn't have enough of the patterned paper I'd used on the front - the mesh is a bit less mesh-like too because i caught one of the threads on the top piece and had to "match" the bottom... and on it went!

Creative Craft Challenges, Papertake Weekly, Moving Along With The Times, Catch The Bug, Oozak andThrough the Craftroom Door all have Anything Goes challenges running, so I'm entering there.

That's it for today, pop over to the Here Come The Boys blog and check out the rest of the team's inspiration; it's amazing how the same sketch can look so different :-) I hope you get a chance to show us your interpretation of the sketch too, don't forget to make your project suitable for a man or boy!  We've got a great prize of 2 digis from Dr Digi - bonus!
I'll be back in a few days, health permitting (I have a chest infection at the moment, legacy of not taking the head cold I had last week seriously - a mistake oft made by asthmatics!).  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

I've Got Some Christmas Blues... and it's only September!

Well I sort of have the Blues... we have a new challenge starting today at Here Come the Boys - and the theme is "Blue Christmas in September"

The fabulous image is from Dr Digi who is our sponsor this fortnight, this is Surfin' Santa and you can grab yours here.  Divas by Design has a "Water Themed" challenge so I'm entering there and Deep Ocean Challenge has You Are My Sunshine so I'm in there too.

I coloured with Copics, adding a white highlight to the sunglasses, and some gloss to them too... just for good measure!  
Fab'n'funky Challenges wants us to use Opposite colours (of the colour wheel), I have so I'm in, Stampin' for the Weekend  has Colours of Summer and Sweet Stampin' has Got the Blues (only like I have, lol) so I'm entering them too :-)  
The papers are digis from Bearly Mine Designs, the Christmas Wishes set, the blue card is Canson and the white matting has glittery dots all over it, so nice IRL.  
I used the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches, the horizontal band has the white glittery paper and the blue has been punched with a Christmas punch that my lovely Mum just brought me back from her (latest!) trip to Malaysia.

The snowflake charm is part of a challenge win from the lovely Nikki at Bunny Zoe Crafts, attached with bakers twine; The Crazy Challenge has a Bingo theme, I've used the "Charms/Image/Punches or Die Cuts" row.  I've got loads of layers here... 
Christmas Stampin' All Year Long wants to see 4+ Layers, so I'm in, and Crafts-Too Challenge You want to see Texture + Your Style... I think I've got enough texture and this card is my "style", such as it is (focus on the image and only a few embellies - whatever you'd call that style, lol)The sentiment is from Create With TLC, my 'go to' place for sentiments, Aud Sentiments wants us to use Any Sentiment... too easy!  The pearls are actually Pebbles from Scrappers Must Haves, they're translucent but didn't look quite right, so I gave them a coat of Stickles, now they look just fine :-)
I finished the inside using the same sketch, dispensing with the charm, lol.  

Whimsy Inspirations Challenge has Masculine as their theme, as do Creatalicious Challenges and My Mums Craft Shop so I'm entering there. Bearly Mine Challenges, Addicted to Stamps, Totally Gorjuss, Through the Craftroom Door and Paper Crafting Journey have Anything Goes challenges while Papertake Weekly Anything Goes with the option of Christmas, so I'm entering there too.

Well that's it for today's card, I hope you get a chance to pop over to the blog and check out the rest of the team's "Blue Christmas" cards, why not get a start (if you haven't already!) on your Christmas cards... you'll be in with a chance at some of your own Dr Digis too - bonus! 

I thought I'd share the latest photo my son (Matt, not Chris the photographer) took of the twins the other day with his phone, they're nearly five and a half months old now - wow, time's flown! I'm sharing this pic over at Sassy Cheryl's Show Me Thursday blog, such a fun space :-)
Matt's still not back at work yet, the amputation site has healed over, he has started driving again and is going to the gym daily to try and get some flexibility back in to his foot where the scar tissue is hard and inflexible (and to build up his leg muscles which have wasted a little over the last three and a bit months)  He should be back to work by the beginning of next month, he is slowly increasing the time his foot is down, currently it swells once it's not elevated for more than an hour or so.  He has yet to get his orthotics and prosthetics are probably out of the picture as the quote came in at $16000!! a bit much for two toes, when they only last about three years.
One thing about having all this time at home is that he is spending a lot of time with the babies there'll be a lot of adjustment when he goes back to work... for everyone!
Anyway, I'll be back in a few days hopefully, with another card; until then Happy Crafting, Donna

Roll Out Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

I'm back today with a card for the new challenge over at Here Come The Boys, with the theme "Lazy Summer Days" - I am a bit late with my post as I was quite unwell earlier - I'm feeling a lot better now, thank goodness!

I've used one of the many fabulous images from Dr Digi, who is our sponsor for this challenge, this is Ambrose King of the Waves.  I've coloured with Copics adding some extra shading (which is really hard to see in the pic!) with Prismacolor pencils and some gloss to the eyes and swim mask. The clouds I did with versamark ink. A Little Bit Crafty  has Summer Sun, as does My Mums Craft Shop so I'm entering there.  Anything Goes Challenge  has By the Sea, Crafts-Too Challenge You has Summer Fun - Beach Colours, The Paper Shelter has Holiday Time and Without Words has Beach Holiday/At the Seaside so I'm entering there... and hoping that my card is CAS enough to qualify. 

I've made the card base with Kraft, again!  The mats are from scraps I had from a DCWV Mariposa pad, you can see them in my "red" scraps folder :-) Tuesday Throwdown are challenging us to Use Our Scraps... I could probably make a thousand cards with my hoard of scraps, lol.  The designer paper is from a Design by Dani pad "All American Summer", I got it as a digi from Jessica Sprague...   I've just discovered this site and they sell Echo Park Hybrids (one of my all time favourite pads is EP Walk in the Park... which is available as a hybrid, yay!)  I did have a bit of a spend up, aah, again :-)  Pile It On has Designer Paper as their challenge so I'm in. The only embellishments I've added are a couple of eyelets and the seashells, which I bought in a pack from my LSS.  I've added some to the front and also to the inside to use them as a stop for the easel. 

I cut the image panel (and the jotting panel inside, with more inked clouds) with an Mpress Victorian Frame die, I hand cut the mats using the die as a guide.  The sentiment is Craftworks, also with a freehand mat.

2 Sisters Challenge wants to see Square Cards, so I'm in, and Little Red Wagon wants Layers so I'm in there too.

Gem of a Challenge want Anything with a B - I have Beach, Burn (check out Ambrose's shoulders, nose and bald pate, lol), Bathers and of course Birthday. Seize the Birthday has Anything Goes Birthday (as always), so I'm in, Cards for Men has "funny birthday" and Inky Impressions, Cuttlebug Mania and Creatalicious Challenges all have "masculine" challenges, so in there too.  My Time to Craft has Sports (swimming, well Ambrose will go swimming after he's finished his ice cream, lol) and Through the Craftroom Door, Colour Me Copic, Cutie Pie Challenge, Paper Crafting Journey and Crafty Calendar all have Anything Goes challenges so I'm entering them too.

Hope you get a chance to visit the blog and check out the rest of the team's efforts, brilliant as always!  With such a nice broad theme and that fab prize from Dr Digi, hope to see you enter the challenge too :-)  

I'll be back in a few days with a card I've got sitting on my desk, until then Happy Crafting, Donna